


Title Undetermined

by Kenocka



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Papa!Rango and Son!Gnar, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Lust
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-28 22:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8466190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kenocka/pseuds/Kenocka
Summary: Rengar somehow managed to forget that angering Gnar is never a good idea. This time it's cost him more than just his pride but has lead to an incredibly exciting change in his life at the same time.





	

_The man who would become my father is named Tāne. He is known as one of the best hunters in Valoran and found me in the jungle when I was four years old. I do not know for certain how I am so sure that I was that age but it’s never been in question that I was no older and no younger than that. I was covered in blood, most of it someone else’s, some of it mine. I’d been running wild through what would become my home for weeks, having been spotted by the man who would raise me and left alone on the off chance that my parents were nearby._

_Out of pity he left food and water for me that at first I did not touch. I was a young child but apparently my suspicion of strangers was strong enough to overcome any desire to fill my belly - for a short time anyway. I gave in after a few days into starvation and dehydration. He managed to gain some of my trust by doing this but I never allowed him to close the distance. Whenever he attempted to do so I would literally disappear from his sight, a feat that was astounding and amazing to him. It wouldn’t be until much later on that I would learn how and why I was capable of something so incredibly prodigious._

_When nearly a month had passed and I remained alone, somehow not eaten or killed by the creatures of the jungle, that was when he made up his mind to shelter me until a more permanent solution could be found. By the time my father had made up his mind to take me in I was nearly feral and it seemed as if the jungle itself was aiding my narrow escapes. It took him several hours to actually catch me and this was an exercise in patience on his part, a lesson I would learn well in the coming years but not one which I would often put into practice outside of hunting._

_My own natural instincts helped in my fruitless endeavor to avoid capture but that wasn’t the whole of it. Fear is a powerful motivator, especially when you’re a child with no memory of who, what, and where you are. Being chased by an adult, even one that had shown me kindness, did not lessen that. In one instance in which I was by all rights caught I managed to use my ability to disappear to slip away from him. I think it was this that finally frustrated my father into ruthlessness._

_He guided me into a trap and dragged me home in a net, screaming and growling and mewling the whole while in a language that he neither understood nor had heard before. Now I don’t remember it myself, unless I am dreaming. The meaning behind the words I hear and sometimes wake up speaking have long since been lost to me. I spent most of my time attempting to escape from my father’s home and he without fail brought me back to him. Eventually and with great hesitation I gave up and that is when he began teaching me. The language barrier was there of course but I was young and I learned all that he had to teach me quickly and with an unexpected voracity once he had my trust, however incomplete it was in those early months._

_Part of me is upset that I do not remember more of myself and where I am from and the other part huffs and shoves those insecurities to the wayside. Had I allowed myself to become mired in the whys of my abandonment then I would not be what I am today: the greatest hunter Valoran has ever seen and a Champion of the League of Legends. Well, former Champion of the League of Legends. After years of covert, internecine warring amongst the high ranking summoners, the internal strife within the Institute of War boiled over and the League of Legends was officially dissolved in the eleventh month of the twenty-fifth year of its founding._

_With the dissolution of Valoran’s primary peacekeeping institution, tensions sprang up again between the city-states as if the past twenty-five years of relative conciliation had never happened. War was predicted as spies within Noxus and Demacia reported an increase in each nation’s military preparedness. Many claimed that this was simply paranoia on both their parts and others began preparing themselves for the inevitability of another messy conflict, even another, final Rune War. A war that could possibly destroy the planet if the magics involved reached the cataclysmic heights they had in the past._

_None of that was of concern to me unless the fighting managed to spill over the mountains and somehow make it through the deadly Shurima Desert. The fatal amounts of sun and magical storms provided by the desert along with the deadly Xer’Sai seemed to ensure that nothing I knew as my home would be in danger. Additionally, there was talk of a powerful mage of some sort attempting to rebuild the ancient Shuriman Empire. I had heard nothing but rumors of what was happening in the ruins from those that traded with the Shurimans. They claimed that this self-proclaimed emperor had enough power to control the actual sand in the desert, that turning an army would be easily done and dealt with in a precise manner._

_There must have been some truth to the hearsay because Nasus managed to find me - with some kind of location magic he explained - and thoroughly questioned me about whether or not someone named Azir had been poking around for information about him. None by that name had been seen in the jungle. I was certain of that after he described the man as being a falcon-like being similar to himself. The jackal was relieved, visibly so, that his whereabouts remained unknown to this newcomer and rewarded me by casting some sort of spell to prevent others from locating me via arcane means. I was tempted to ask what had the Curator so wound up but he made his excuses and left even more quickly than he’d arrived. It seemed my home was so far enough removed from northern Valoran and had so many obstacles to it that it wasn’t foolish to assume Kumungu’s safety._

_My own safety, however, is always entirely in question. I seek out and claim as trophies the most dangerous animals that Valoran can offer. It is what I am renowned for all across the continent, my reputation surpassing that of my father’s with ease and vigor. I suppose that’s why my requirements for engaging in such risky hunts leaves some people with questions. If there are not plentiful numbers of the beast that has garnered my attentions then I do not seek it out. It makes no sense to further endanger a population of animals that, while dangerous, serve an important function to my goddess as a whole._

_Understand that I am no nature lover as Nidalee is but I do feel as if there must be a balance maintained. There are exceptions to this rule but there is one self-imposed rule that I will never cross. I do not hunt sentient creatures and beasts. That there are those people who take pleasure in ending the life of another thinking creature sickens me. I have been on the wrong end of such arrogant quests. It started just months after it became known that I no longer lived under my father’s roof when I was a young man, my mane barely growing. Obviously none of the fools that sought me out succeeded, but there were many. The heads of those who attempted to take my hide are part of the pike line that surrounds my territory. Now there are none who would dare make that attempt._

_My fame will never guarantee complete immunity from harm. There are animals, to say nothing of people, that just do not care about my accomplishments and at some point my luck and skill will not be enough to prevent harm from coming to me. That is how I wound up in the position that I am in now, laying on my back and bleeding out on the savannah with my hips, legs, ribs, and a host of other bones broken, possibly crushed. None would believe that my injuries were caused by a yordle child but it was the absolute truth._

_This was no ordinary yordle though. He was, is able to, transform into some kind of enormous, hulking beast when his ire is sufficiently raised. My own decidedly nasty temper, rearing most often when someone is distracting me from seeking out new and dangerous prey to add to my collection, helped that along. He had wanted to play, I think, and had I not been so intent on seeking out different and more perilous creatures then I might have indulged him. Instead I roared and threw his boomerang high into a tree, having not learned a thing from our first encounter in any respect because I’d done the exact same thing. It made him furious and the fighting retreat that followed was the reason I was now dying outside of my home, the monster once again a young boy called by the name Gnar._

_He sobbed over me, and distantly I remembered he was clearly unable to recognize or control what he had done while in the grotesque form he assumed while infuriated. Had I been in less poor shape then I’d have made the attempt to congratulate him on doing what no one else had been able to do. Instead I laid there, ready for the end that was without a doubt coming to me. I purred without a conscious effort on my part to do so and that seemed to quiet the child to some degree, a welcome change of pace. I preferred to have my end presided over with calm and acceptance, not regretful tears._

_I hoped that this experience, terrible though it would no doubt be on someone so young, would be something he learned from. He held a great power in him that he did not understand or have control of in his youth. It would make him a target for those same fools that had once thought I would grace the walls or floors of their home in some fashion. Had I been able to impart this to him then I would have, but that was not to be. The boy was babbling again, excited and unable to properly communicate what he was seeing. It left me exhausted and praying that if it was some form of animal that I’d at least die quickly under it’s claws and teeth. Remaining conscious while being eaten alive was not something I looked forward to._

_Imagine my surprise when instead of seeing some horrendous carnivore ready to tear out and feast upon my innards a face similar to mine, ringed in moonlight, appeared out of the fog of my fading consciousness._

* * *

Rengar thought, no knew, he was dying. His brain's final moments were conjuring a hallucination based upon childhood insecurities to keep him from panicking as his lifeblood snaked out of him in rivulets and rivers. It was sad that instead of producing an image of his father, he was instead being forced to look upon a creature so similar to himself that it had to be another of his kind.

 _'Some kind of memory,'_ he thought faintly. On more than one occasion when he was truly injured or when his dreams too vivid, the hunter remembered the faces of creatures that looked like him. He could never wake up with a clear image of that which he'd seen while asleep but apparently his unconscious mind remembered just enough to attempt to make his passing comfortable.

_'Why this though? Why something that I've never seen in anything other than my dreams?'_

Rengar couldn't answer that for himself. He faded from the waking world too quickly to ponder the situation further.  

* * *

Awareness came back to Rengar in the form of Gnar’s hands gently mopping dried blood from the fur on his face. Waves of small pain came from the boy’s gentle touch but it was overridden by the way the rest of his body was a pulsating mound of aching brokenness. Unable to stop himself, the hunter groaned and clenched his eyes shut against the dim light that filtered through the tent’s fabric. He tried to move one arm up to throw it over his face and cried out at the shooting fire that screamed through his shoulder. Gnar yelped in fear and fell backwards before quickly coming back to Rengar’s side. The boy made shushing sounds, clearly imitating someone older, and lightly put one small hand on the lion-man’s brow.

“Pah - Rengar,” said Gnar after quickly correcting himself, “don’ move.” He ran a hand over Rengar’s arm and shrank back when it made the hunter wince. “You’re hurt. Bad.”

Gnar got no clear response from Rengar other than an attempt on the lion-man’s part to even out his breathing through a clenched jaw. He had been that way for days and although he was slowly improving there were still miles to go in his recovery.

“I’ll get the glowing lady,” the child supplied helpfully with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. It went unnoticed because Rengar’s eyes were still clenched shut but it helped the boy feel a little better. He stood and walked towards the tent’s flap, calling over his shoulder, “She’ll glow again and fix you more!”

Guards stopped Gnar as he opened the flap, drawing the boy up short and staring him down until he backed out of the doorway and turned to run behind Rengar’s prone body. The two were frightening not just because of their size but because they looked just like Rengar. Even their stern faces reminded the yordle of the lion-man when his ferocity had risen to its zenith.

“He’s awake,” the yordle chirped nervously, ducking down and adding on, “hurting again too.”

Gnar had no idea if his words were carrying through to the strangers that kept him from leaving the tent and cowering by Rengar’s side. So far no one had seemed capable of even speaking a language he understood and that left the boy with a dizzying feeling and his heart beating just a little too quickly. Of course he could always rely upon physical gestures and facial expressions but those could be misunderstood. Furthermore it was frustrating to be taking so many steps backwards. He’d worked hard to make himself understandable and the thought that he’d have to work towards that goal all over again left him annoyed. What would he do if he couldn't learn their language? The idea left him panicking and one of his fists curled into Rengar's fur and pulled against bruised skin, leaving the lion-man whimpering in his semi-conscious state.

That was enough to alert the guards to the hunter's condition and they conferred quickly with each other. One of them left while the other remained to take note of their charge's injuries. It didn't take long for the other lion-man to determine that his white-furred counterpart was still too hurt to do more than lay on his back and moan pitifully. When he left, throwing the tent back into the stale-smelling gloom that had occupied it for hours, Gnar breathed a sigh of relief that turned into a grimace at the odor of the room. These people were helping Rengar but the yordle didn't trust them and the favor was returned. He'd spent enough time around Rengar to recognize what expressions the species could pull onto their faces.

The nervous feeling from before came back without a care for how it made its victim's heart palpitate unevenly and Gnar breathed shallowly until the woman who'd begun healing Rengar entered the tent. Her brown eyes weren’t particularly warm, they were more detached than anything, but she gave him a calming smile, stopping just inside the tent's opening and was met with a relieved one as the boy began breathing regularly again. It was then, when he was clearly comfortable with her being there, that she moved to kneel at her patient's side. They were both silent with one another as the healer took in the wounds and bruising that covered Rengar until the silence grew to be too much for the boy.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Worry and fear colored Gnar's words. Something to be expected from a child of any age but especially one as young as he was. "Sorry,” he mumbled bitterly, looking down and away from the lioness, “we can't talk."

The woman looked up from her assessment and quirked an eyebrow, silently remarking on her inability to understand the words being spoken to her, before she began muttering to herself. In response the air began cooling to a comfortable temperature, stark in contrast to the stuffy heat that had risen in the tent throughout the day. It condensed, seeming to draw in towards her as she focused on the spell before it broke away and spun lazily in the confines of the shelter, pulling the smells of blood and pain away and replacing it with freshened air.

Gnar recognized the now warm and welcoming feeling emanating from the lioness as one of the healing spells she’d been using for so many days. The knots his stomach had tied itself into unclenched briefly and he swallowed hard against his dry throat. At least she was still helping Rengar. He knew that many would have given up on someone in the condition the hunter had been found in. They'd have tried to make him comfortable but would have been resigned to letting him pass. So much was broken and Gnar didn't know who or what had been the cause and only cared if it had followed them and their rescuers.

"I wish we could talk to one another. I'm tired of being alone," muttered Gnar, fighting off the urge to curl in on himself and losing as he watched more of the serious bruises and lumps that heavily peppered Rengar's body slowly begin receding. There was no way huge black and purple blossoms of color weren't a large part of the misery that the lion-man was suffering with. The boy hoped that the more damaging and painful bruises he knew were there but couldn’t be seen were being healed away as well. Gnar knew that if they were bad enough, bruises could mean blood loss and the fear that knowledge caused gnawed a pit through his stomach and left his heart at his feet.

The healer cleared her throat to catch Gnar's attention and when he looked up she gave him another smile and patted the ground next to her while her other hand remained hovering just a few inches over Rengar's chest. Gnar returned her geniality with a wobbly smile of his own before standing and circling quickly around the hunter's prone body to sit next to the lioness. She lightly patted his head before her free hand joined its partner and her focus was again situated on the removal of her charge's wounds. It was too much to hope that he'd been understood but not so much to think that his unshed tears and need for companionship had been seen. 

"Rilara." Gnar's head snapped up at the word, softly spoken, and looked up into the lioness' brown eyes as she repeated herself and pointed an elbow at him.

"I'm Gnar! N-Are," he said carefully, his excitement bounding down into his tail and making it flop up and down for a second. "He's Rengar," Gnar pointed, "Ren-gare." It earned him another smile, this one brighter, and a chuff of mild laughter. He beamed at her and his tail waved in the air before he forced it back to the ground at another friendly spattering of chuckling.

"At least we know each other's names now."

Gnar's voice was a happy, hopeful chirp and Rilara's response was to allow a heavy and loud purr to vibrate up and out of her tawny body. It left a smile on Gnar's face. Just knowing that someone else knew his name, knew Rengar's name, was a comfort to the child but not something he was wholly unfamiliar with or surprised by. When he'd awoken from his frozen confinement to a time different than the one he'd been born in he hadn't been able to communicate with anyone and had felt isolated and anxious. The concerted efforts of the team assigned to work with him and help him adjust to the modern world had been tireless in their efforts to help him learn their language and it had eased his fears and transition into the public. There were still issues that needed to be resolved but at least he could speak and be understood.

Even so, Gnar wasn't entirely comfortable with cities and knew without being told that he'd probably prefer small towns or the wilderness for a long time. He was tired of being the center of everyone's attention without being _given_ attention. Gnar was a child, not an experiment. It was why he'd taken the opening to run off into the forests around Bandle City when he'd had the chance. His handlers just hadn't expected it and no one had been able to find him until Rengar sent word that he was back in Kumungu. The scientists had demanded Gnar be returned to them and the lion-man's response had been a succinct, "Come get him yourselves."

If anyone had been attempting to get to Gnar then they had yet to succeed and he'd taken off well over six months ago. Since then he'd been wandering through Rengar's domain at will, often underfoot and feeling completely safe and protected. It seemed as if the territorial hunter had no problems, or at least didn't care, that he had a yordle roaming through the lands he considered his. The truth of the matter was tied into his own past. He'd been a child left alone in the jungle at one point and someone had taken the time to watch over and care for him. It felt right for him to do the same thing though he'd never admit to it if pressed for a reason.

"He's gonna be okay right?" Gnar asked the question knowing that Rilara wouldn't give a response that he could understand but he needed to talk to someone, even if they didn't know what he was saying exactly. He had to give voice to his fears, otherwise he felt he'd come undone.

"'M'gonna be fine," Rengar slurred, awake again and his eyes clamped shut against the pounding, hammering feel of his body working in concentrated effort to turn his brain into a liquid enough substance that it could be poured out of his ears.

Both Gnar and Rilara jumped at Rengar's words before calming down again. They watched his breathing even out and deepen as he faded from consciousness. Rilara seemed to increase her focus on her healing, completely shutting out the inquisitive look Gnar shot her way. Her efforts made her hands glow a brighter green than before as she attempted to pump more healing energy into her patient. Privately the tawny lioness felt some guilt over ignoring the child at her side but mending Rengar's wounds took precedence over keeping the boy company.

 _'When was the last time he ate? Drank? He's so young,'_ she thought and with pangs of worry and shame resolved to find something for him when her available time with the two of them was up. _'I'll be quick about it that way no one can harp on me about resources or slacking off.'_

A sour taste entered into Rilara's mouth as the warning words of Rallis came back to her. The pride wouldn't tolerate too much time and too many resources being spent on the interlopers if it could be avoided. If Rilara wanted to attempt to keep the injured male alive then she would be allowed to try, as was her right as a healer and pride member, but she would have to provide for him and the strange child that accompanied him. She could ask for help from those willing to provide assistance but she would otherwise be on her own. It was a callous way of dealing with the newcomers, with anyone that wound up in the male’s condition, and one that would be enforced without too much deviation on Rallis' part.

 _'The brat shouldn't be the one giving me orders, not when she's still so wet behind the ears that she can't think for herself,'_ Rallis thought unkindly, forcing even more energy into the spell than she normally would have. It would leave her feeling drained and she'd have to work quickly to get Gnar and Rengar some kind of simple food and broth before moving onto other tasks in the pride’s lands. Her rations, the ones she kept stored away in times of emergency, were going to suffer but she was willing to put up with it for as long as her efforts kept her charges alive.

"Rilara I'm being told that your available time's nearly up," said one of the guards, pulling the tent's flap aside and stepping into the mercifully cool confines of the structure. He stood for a minute and just enjoyed the feeling of the environment that had been manufactured by the spellcaster. When he noticed the sour look aimed at him he pulled sheepish contrition onto his face. "Sorry I'm just obeying orders."

"I know Lann," huffed Rilara, her face brightening briefly when she saw him holding a few water skins and a rolled up cloth that smelled heavily of dried meat. "You brought that from my tent I'm guessing?"

"It's definitely not mine," he snorted before eyeing Gnar's wary and tense posture. "Any way of telling that kid that I'm not gonna bite him or his friend?"

"Gnar," Rilara cooed, pulling the boy's attention back onto her, "it's okay. Lann is a friend." She purred and made to reach out to reassure Gnar with a gentle caress but pulled back at the last second. There was no telling out he'd react to a stranger's touch no matter how well-meaning. Instead she smiled and purred and hoped that it would be a clear enough message to carry across the language barrier. With one hand still hovering over Rengar's chest, Rilara reached back as far as she could in what she hoped was Lann's direction and said in a pleasant voice, "Hand that to me."

"Gotcha." Lann dumped first the wrapped meat and then the water skins, one at a time, and then beat a hasty retreat to stand with Savaria outside. They had picked up guard duty when Rilara had first entered the tent, relieving the two males that had been standing there, about an hour before and done their round of watching the tent and keeping an eye on Rilara and were due a break. They'd made sure that they'd be able to take off at the same time together and their antics usually made anyone nearby laugh or roll their eyes.

None of that was Rallis' concern right now. She had to prove to Gnar that nothing was going to harm him or Rengar. She freed some jerky from the cloth and chewed on it to prove that it was okay before handing off a strip to the boy. He looked the meat over before hunger took control of his actions and he gnawed at it in a way that was reminiscent of squirrels.

Smiling, Rilara pushed one of the water skins over to him before pulling the stopper from another. Inside was a thin broth-like potion made up of as many healing plants as she and a few others could gather. She'd blessed it and now hoped that not only would it actually feed Rengar but push him further along the road to recovery while she wasn't around. The hard part now was making sure he actually drank everything down without choking on it and finishing up before someone began hounding her to move along to her other duties.

* * *

“You take too long with them,” snapped Rallis as soon as Rilara had exited the tent. “Just make the stranger comfortable and let him pass peacefully.”

The brief look of unease on the younger lioness’ face was quickly hidden by impatience. An annoyed scowl appeared on the healer’s and she had no problems with allowing her displeasure to make itself known.

“It’s so easy to order another person to allow someone to die but not so easy to commit to the act,” Rilara growled back. She got an angrier snarl in return but that didn’t stop her from continuing. “When _you_ can carry out the orders you’re ferrying around for your mother _then_ I _might_ consider listening to them.”

"Fine! On your own head be it Rilara! Just do it on your own time!" Rallis bared her teeth at the older lioness and turned away. As far as she was concerned had done her duty. Rilara would have to face the consequences of disobedience on her own.

 _'She'll eventually learn to obey those above her,'_ thought the young huntress. _‘She'll learn that my mother and then I know what's best for the pride as a whole. My mother does things for a reason and soon enough, I'll have that responsibility too.'_

Even so Rallis knew that no good leader ever went unquestioned. Questions helped one to learn their weaknesses. They taught you to learn the perspectives of others, to respect the differences between yourself and your kin. If Rallis was determined to save the life of the strange white-furred male then it was up to her to do so. As long as she wasn't neglecting her own duties to the pride then Rallis herself didn't care what Rilara did in her spare time. If playing nursemaid was what made her happy then by all means, tend to every creature on the planet's surface.

Rallis knew she was being a tad unkind to the other lioness. Rilara had suffered many losses since her affinity for healing magic had been discovered. Having people under her care affected the healer deeply, as much as she tried to hide it behind that smoothed out mask she wore. Being ordered to let someone die when just years before her endeavors had been supported by the pride as a whole wasn't easy on her.

They just couldn't afford the expense of caring for someone who wasn't likely to survive.

"Whatever. This is going to come back to bite us all later on down the road."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for NaNoWriMo 2k16 and featuring a mixture of old and new lore and a heaping host of my own headcanons. So we're canon divergent from everything right off the bat regardless of what you pursue privately. I understand that my interpretation and ideas are not everyone's cuppa tea but I'm writing this to prove to myself that I can actually write a story with multiple chapters and finish it. My own pleasure comes before pleasing others in this case. 
> 
> I reserve the right to moderate the comments left on this story if I find them to be derisive towards others or myself personally.


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